Product and Manufacturing: The news that’s on everyone’s lips

Not everyone can be winner of the Great British Bake Off. Not everyone can create the perfect Beef Wellington to serve with a doff of the old toque blanche to Gordon Ramsay.

Truth be told, not all of us dream of being up to our oven gloves in suet and self-raising or having to sweat under a torrent of sweary words hotter than a pair of chili pakora ear buds.

What we do all need is a bite to eat, regularly and without too much fuss please: let’s make it simple, classic, beautiful, head chef!

And that means we need people working in a vibrant food and drinks sector.

The good news the Scottish manufacturing and production industry is to benefit from the opening of a Food and Drink park in Perth and Kinross, which will see 400 new jobs created.

food and drink

The food and drink sector has a healthy appetite for new recruits.

Following £5 million investment from Perth and Kinross Council, the brand new Perth Food and Drink Park is now open for business, and is set to bolster the thriving food and beverage industry in the region, as well as the production industry.

The site at North Muirton, just north of Perth city, is home to 11 fully serviced plots spread over 6.5 hectares.

The units – which benefit from water, drainage, superfast broadband and hi-tech telecoms – are available in plots from one to three acres, allowing businesses of various sizes to benefit from basing production and manufacturing operations there.

The location is likely to be a great boom in terms of employment potential; it is estimated more than one million people live within an hour’s drive of Perth, and the North Muirton site is well connected to the A9, allowing easy to access to the city centre, the train station and Edinburgh Airport.

The park is likely to be a major coup for the Perth and Kinross region, which already commands significant clout in Scottish food and beverage production, generating revenues of £280 million annually through its cornucopia of whiskies, game, berries and fish, amongst others.

It is expected that the new food and drink park will help facilitate growth in this sector, which is currently worth £13.1 billion. By 2017, it is hoped that this figure will rise to £16.5 billion.

A further boost to the sector comes in March with Scottish Tourism Week focussing on Scotland’s exceptional and expanding food and drink sector.

This coincides with Visit Scotland’s ‘Year of Food & Drink’ and, from March 3 to 5, includes events such as the Scottish Culinary Championships and the Scottish Tourism Industry Conference.

If you’d like more information on events – or simply want to know the secrets of creating the perfect Stornoway Black Pudding or Dundee Clootie Dumplings, see www.visitscotland.com 

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